Must be between 6 and 40 charactersPassword is invalid. Passwords should be at least 6 characters long, cannot contain only repeated characters or sequences (e.g. "aaaaaaa" or "123456") or be a common password (e.g. "qwerty" or "password"). Please choose a more secure password.

FREE Online Permaculture Course

First - please watch the video above - it tells you a LOT about what we're doing in a few short minutes. We're putting a $2000 course online completely FREE and also making it available on DVD.

Want to support this incredible project? Pre-order your full course on DVD with a pledge of $175 (regular rate will be $225 - you save $50 by supporting this campaign).

UPDATE: We have been given access to 1000+ hours of footage about sustainable community some of which we'd love to edit and include with the course.

For every hour of film we put online, we have to spend about three hours minimum editing. The more we're able to raise, the more time our editor will be able to spend on this project.

Help us make that possible by getting us to our stretch-goal! Be sure to check the "updates" tab above for the latest news about this project - we've already began the editing process!!

We are the Regenerative Leadership Institute, an eight year old leadership, sustainable living and permaculture design school with courses in Oregon, California and Hawaii. We change people's lives by fundamentally reconnecting with nature, remembering our collective heritage and creating a beautiful, thriving future.

We're seeking to film one of our in-person trainings and develop a free online permaculture design course, teaching principles of sustainable living and permaculture design.

Traditionally a permaculture design course costs between $1500 - $5000, involves taking several weeks off work and travel expenses. We want to change all that by creating a completely free online course. Make no mistake about it - this is absolutely unprecedented - but we can't do it without you!

What Is Permaculture?

Permaculture is the extension of the art of biomimicry - a sustainable living and design science rooted in observation of nature; permaculture is to sustainability what math is to physics. Nature has long solved many of the environmental and social problems we're facing today, but we just have not been paying much attention.

While many people think of permaculture as gardening, that’s a lot like thinking of math as being about building bridges. Permaculture is much larger than gardening. Permaculture is a sustainable design science rooted in observation of natural patterns. For example, the same branching pattern of a tree is present in every river, as well as in our own bodies — the pattern maximizes edge, increases diversity, and serves at least a dozen other functions. The very concepts of diversity increasing stability of natural living systems and edge increasing diversity are core permaculture teachings.

By observing the way nature works and then applying the same patterns and principles we learn to design truly sustainable, extremely resilient systems on any level – that can be a garden, a business or a whole city.

How Is Permaculture Changing Our World?

Check out this amazing video about how permaculturist Geoff Lawton turned a property in the desert of Jordan Valley into a food-producing forest in just a couple years. Seriously, go watch the video - it's incredible.

Here are just some of the many things a permaculture course teaches:

Permaculture principles for smart design

Pattern observation and site analysis

Natural building construction

Renewable energy and appropriate technology

Rainwater harvesting and conservation

Passive and active solar design

Graywater considerations and system design

Waste recycling and treatment

Soil regeneration and land restoration

Food forests, trees and garden design

Cooperative economics and financial permaculture

Scale – designing sustainable, thriving cities

and much, much more.

Why We Are Raising Money

We want to make this work as accessible as possible while costs of filming, editing, web site development and promotion all add up. For every hour of footage we film, we need to have a professional editor spend several hours editing and converting. Then we also need to integrate a website platform to make the content truly coherent and allow us to create a very high quality online educational experience.

We estimate the costs of filming, editing, website programming and online promotion to be roughly $10,000. We are hoping to greatly exceed that minimum with this campaign and the additional funds over that amount will enable us to not only develop the online course but also produce several interviews with our instructors plus additional e-books and a much more extensive online promotion.

The world needs this knowledge made as accessible as possible. Help us meet that need by supporting this game-changing campaign.

What You Get For Your Support

You are helping to make history. Never before has a full permaculture design course been made available online completely free. We're committed to making this knowledge available to absolutely everyone.

Check out the awesome perks we've listed on the right. They include gift certificates to our trainings, delivery of physical course DVDs (we're talking about roughly seventy hours of film!), as well as access to our full in-person trainings.

Even better, through our non-profit partner, we're going to plant at least one tree for every sponsor we get and quite literally make the earth a little bit greener.

Let's Change the World - PLEDGE Today and SHARE This INCREDIBLE Project on FaceBook and E-Mail!

Gift certificate for $50 (twice your support) to any of our courses. In addition, we will plant a tree on your behalf!

23
claimed

$50USD

Permaculture eBook + More

Introduction to Permaculture Design e-book (we'll create this together with the online course) plus a gift certificate for $100 (twice your support) to any of our online or in-person courses. In addition, we will plant a tree on your behalf!

76
claimed

$175USD

Permaculture Course on DVD

Complete 70+ hour course on DVD, plus full access online . Get the DVD at a big discount plus the Introduction to Permaculture Design e-book (we'll create this together with the online course) plus a gift certificate for $350 for any in-person course. In addition, we will plant a tree on your behalf!

117
claimed

$750USD

DVD + Permaculture Manual

Complete course on DVD, plus full access to the course content online. We will also send you the ultimate permaculture resource - the Permaculture Designer's Manual by Bill Mollison. Of course you also get the Introduction to Permaculture Design e-book (we'll create this together with the online course) plus a gift certificate for $750 for any in-person course. In addition, we will plant a tree on your behalf!

0
claimed

$1,700USD

In-Person, Online + DVD Course

Gift certificate for the in-person Regenerative Leadership and Permaculture Design course (regular tuition is $2700!). Plus we'll send you the complete course on DVD and give you access online. You will also get both the Permaculture Designer's Manual and the introduction ebook. In addition, we will plant a tree on your behalf!